Hall was a standout during a three-day interview process that included panel interviews with community leaders.

"She starts out with challenges on her doorstep," said Gary Griffith, a former City Council member and president of Safer Dallas, a police booster group.

"She convinced us she's up for all the challenges."

Hall takes the reins in Dallas on Sept. 5. Here are some key hurdles the incoming chief will encounter when she arrives:

Morale

Hall will need to work quickly to earn the trust of her police force when she arrives in Dallas, and her reputation as a "police officer's worker" may help, said Michael Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association.

Last year, the four major Dallas police associations said they lost confidence in then-chief David Brown's leadership.

Brown came under fire after proposing a controversial plan to reassign 600 officers to different shifts and task forces to fight rising crime. He later backed away from that plan.

Hundreds of officers have left the department since then, leaving their workload in their colleagues' hands. And morale has continued to erode during political fights over pay raises and pension reform.

The department has had a hiring push lately, although the pace of hiring has been slow.

When Hall joined the Detroit Police Department, it had around 4,500 officers. Now it's down to about 1,700.

But Hall has boasted that recruiting is her strength.

"People don't join the police department because they have nothing else to do," she said.

She joked with her current boss, Detroit Police Chief James Craig, on Thursday that she's going to bring some Detroit officers with her to Dallas.

Crime response

Dallas police are combating a spike in drive-by shootings that Pughes has blamed on gang warfare. The shootings fall into an overall increase in violent crimes throughout the city.

Violent crimes — including murder, sexual assaults, robberies and aggravated assaults — are up 7 percent this year through June, compared with 2016. Reported property crimes have dropped slightly this year.

Though overall reported crime has continued to drop in the past 12 years, police have battled an increase in violent crime in the past year.

The department has also been plagued by 911 call center issues this year because of a staffing shortage. And as the force continues to shrink, the time it takes for officers to respond to 911 calls has ticked up.

In 2016, officers responded to the highest priority calls in under eight minutes. This year, that response has risen to more than 8 minutes. It's taken an average of 22 minutes to respond to the second-highest-priority calls this year, compared with about 18 minutes last year.

Efficiency

The Dallas Police Department is larger than Detroit's, with more chiefs running the show. It will be up to Hall to pick a second-in-command and to figure out how to divvy up the responsibilities among her command staff.

Hall said Thursday that she will need help from the commanders in Dallas, including those who competed against her for the job.

"I want everyone to know ... I need each and every one of them," she said.

She'll get some help from the city, too.

Dallas is hiring an outside firm to evaluate the department's efficiency. The firm will also have to look for ways the department can improve how it operates.

Staff writer Tristan Hallman contributed to this report.

CORRECTION, 8:30 a.m., July 21, 2017: The "tale of two cities" chart in an earlier version of this story transposed which city declared bankruptcy. Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2013.